


Exiles

by Fabrisse



Category: Kings
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-13
Updated: 2013-09-13
Packaged: 2017-12-26 11:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/965500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Individual character studies.  This takes place after the end of the final episode.  Time periods vary from a few weeks to a few months after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exiles

From the small study where he was waiting, David Shepherd couldn't hear much, but General Mallick's voice came through loud and clear.

"He can't be trusted. He was Silas' man and his loyalty will always be to Gilboa."

David sighed. In one way, it was true. He was dedicated to the land and its people, but Silas' heart had hardened toward him -- probably because he'd lied about Michelle -- and now all David wanted was peace: peace between Gath and Gilboa, peace between himself and Silas.

He closed his eyes in meditation. From a distance he heard Reverend Samuels say, "You will not take up arms against your people."

He nodded in acceptance.

***  
Michelle hated exile. It wasn't just that the people she was staying with in Aphak remembered her cousin Andrew -- and treated her warily thanks to that -- it was the food. She was used to the sophisticated cookery of her father's chefs or the great restaurants of Shiloh. Aphak was rustic, right on the sea, and the diet consisted of fish, coarse bread, goat cheese, and vegetables. Coffee was an expensive luxury; their teas were made from wild herbs. She'd always thought of herself as simple -- eating to live, not living to eat -- but here, she found even the grapes tasted different.

Her mother had protected her. This family might be wary, but they were well paid and discreet. Her child would be born here, and, if David was not back in Gilboa by then, fostered here. He or she would grow up loving fish and funny tasting grapes, never knowing a father.

Michelle turned toward her hosts and said, "I'm going for a walk on the beach. Would any of you care to join me?"

***  
Jack stared at Lucinda for a moment and then went to their sitting room. In a few minutes, the dumb waiter would slam into place with their lunch. Toward the end of the first week, he'd discovered that no bribe or threat would bring him out of this place, but their internal exile was to be "benevolent." They could request food, books, the daily paper, even exercise videos came up on the dumbwaiter.

Lucinda asked for, and received, gossip, fashion, and decorating magazines. He read history books both of his own country and Gath. He found that Shiloh was an old dream, and he respected his father for using it even as he despised him for confining him to these two rooms.

At the end of the first week, there had been skin magazines -- women with no shame displayed coyly, "tastefully" for men's erotic pleasures. The successive weeks the magazines had gotten raunchier, as Jack had resisted the shy fumblings of his fiancée, repulsed by her tentative softness.

On the sixth Friday, Jack had received the usual plain brown wrapped parcel, this time with some tasteful displays of nude men. The note was in Silas' hand: "Maybe this will get your cock hard." He'd burned the note, and snickered when Lucinda blushed, thinking the magazine was for her. Jack gave in to her that night and despised himself in the morning. 

***  
Thomasina stood where she could see the room. It was emptier these days. Many were dead. Silas' children were exiled -- Michelle with more freedom and Jack with greater proximity. War was again on the agenda; people on both sides of the border continued to disagree where the line should be drawn. Once again, armies would march to draw that line.

Her place was here, but not a day passed when she didn't see Andrew sitting where Jack should be or Rose looking out the window instead of paying close attention and wonder what her king had wrought.

***  
Rose looked at the table decorations and nodded sharply. "You have all done excellently well today. It shall be remembered." Her staff knew her memory was good for the things done right and unrelenting for the things done wrong. A mistake could happen once, but never twice. Rose's lips twitched upward slightly as she saw her staff bask in the rare praise. She could give them today.

Her brother was gone, and, sadly, she could only think good riddance even as she was glad he still lived. Andrew slithered through her court like the viper he was. Fortunately, he had yet to understand the problems that came from catching Silas' full attention. Rose would be there when the realization struck him, and then she would finally smile.

She was not allowed to see Jack. Her letters from Michelle were infrequent and vague, but Rose had set up this monarchy to revolve around the Royal family, and Silas still hadn't realized that it was _**her**_ family at the center, not his. His was the power of the ruler; hers was the power of the dynasty. 

As long as her children were alive, as long as her grandchild was born healthy to show God's favor, she would continue to be Silas perfect consort, his most devoted subject. 

She heard the door open, and rolled her shoulders back. Rose strode forward and greeted the Austerian ambassador's wife.

***  
This time the meal had been lamb, roasted to perfection over an open fire with tender grilled vegetables and an exquisite sweet wine custard for dessert. Silas had provided a young red wine to complement the rustic perfection of the meal.

Silas confided in him: his daughter an exile, David escaped his execution (and he was truly glad. He'd liked the young man in the next cell.), his son locked away until an heir was produced, his brother-in-law and financial backer on the run, and Reverend Samuels dead. He gave Silas more advice as he spread the marrow from the bones over fluffy white bread. He could see Silas taking his words into his mind, into his heart. He particularly commended the wisdom of young Andrew to Silas, knowing the young man to be disturbing to all who met him.

Two hours later, the grease from their dinner still on his chin, Silas left him and the lock slid home on his cell.

For just a moment, he saw the bleak look on the face of the woman who was Silas' head of security. What was her name? He nodded to himself, Thomasina. If Silas could produce that level of self-loathing in a creature so fully devoted to him, he was well on his way to tyranny.

Vesper Abbadon threw back his head and laughed.


End file.
